Terry Parsons

Designer

Terry has recently had great success with three major productions in Copenhagen – Mary Poppins and the set for Les Misérables at the Det Ny Teater and Treasure Island for the Folketeatret. He has many other credits in Denmark including his stunning designs for Disney’s Beauty And the Beast, The King and I, High School Musical, Showboat, Be Bop A Lula and a concert version of Grease. Recently he also designed his first ballet Jane Eyre in London.

Terry has designed thirty-seven productions in London’s West End, among them the mega-hit Grease – which began life at the Dominion Theatre in London starring Craig McLachlan and Debbie Gibson and returned to the West End at the Piccadilly theatre in 2007 where it continues to play to packed houses – Where’s Charley? and The Pirates of Penzance at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, Silly Cow with Dawn French, Gasping with Hugh Laurie and Two Into One with Donald Sinden and Michael Williams and the major musical productions South Pacific, Sweet Charity, Some Like It Hot, Charlie Girl and Singin’ in the Rain. His other credits range from Shakespeare, Sheridan and Congreve to Orton, Ionesco and Durrenmatt, notably a critically acclaimed production of J. B. Priestley’s When We Are Married with Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge with Topol, and Priestley’s Time and the Conways at The Old Vic with Joan Plowright. Terry also re-created designs for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End presentation of the play Daisy Pulls It Off.

Well-known for his pantomime designs, among them lavish versions of Cinderella for Stanley Baxter and Mother Goose for Danny La Rue, Terry has recently been responsible over a 5-year period for designing a portfolio of major new star-studded productions for the Ambassador Theatre Group’s theatres – amongst them Peter Pan at Wimbledon starring Henry Winkler, Cinderella starring Mickey Rooney, Snow White starring Ross Kemp – and this Christmas at Richmond, Peter Pan with Bonnie Langford,

Terry has been Head of Design at three major theatres: the Theatre Royal Plymouth, the Haymarket Leicester and the Belgrade Coventry and his extensive regional credits include, at Chichester, Miranda with Penelope Keith and Underneath the Arches which transferred to the West End; at Liverpool No Trams to Lime Street; at Southampton The Surprise Party with Peter Duncan, Matthew Kelly and Ruth Madoc; and Kay Mellor’s A Passionate Woman, Shady Business and the world premiere of Richard Harris’s A Foot in the Door at Sonning.

Terry’s string of international credits include the European Premieres of Edward Albee’s The Goat and the award winning Proof at Vienna’s English Theatre, on Broadway he created Sian Phillips’ stunning concert costumes for her appearance as Dietrich in Marlene; designed Fame in Scandinavia, Grease in Paris; Chicago in Athens, as well as Romeo and Juliet, Blithe Spirit, Move Over Mrs Markham and Sailor Beware in Denmark; and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Out of Order, Arsenic and Old Lace, Visiting Mr Green and Romantic Comedy in Vienna. He has worked in Canada, Australia and Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle and Far East, as well as productions for several major cruise lines including the QE2. Possibly the most unusual of his overseas assignments was his creation in Dubai of a magical fairy-tale Arabian Nights setting in the desert for three thousand guests – the ‘ultimate’ birthday party for one of the world’s wealthiest sheikhs!